I Hijacked the Timeline (IHT)

In the classroom, Feng Qi meticulously explained the theoretical framework of the "Cultivation Concept – Planting Deities in the Body, Embedding Deities within the Organs."

This time, the Tiger Soul Concept Competition required participating classes to submit a concept and prove its potential for deeper development through a theoretical outline.

If a submitted concept were selected by the Tiger Soul Research Institute, the institute would handle the follow-up improvements and refinements of the concept.

After all, turning a concept into something actionable required immense effort, and the Tiger Soul Research Institute's research team was undoubtedly more specialized in this area than any participating class.

However, Feng Qi had no intention of taking the easy route.

Since he had proposed the concept of "Planting Deities in the Body," he wouldn't leave it to the Tiger Soul Research Institute to spend years refining it.

He intended to participate with a complete set of detailed theoretical knowledge.

This would ensure he received the competition prize while also allowing the concept to have an immediate and profound impact on the future.

Normally, this concept wouldn't be officially integrated into the cultivation system for another 400 years. By promoting it now, Feng Qi was effectively saving humanity four centuries of research and paving the way for further developments.

The implications for the future would be monumental.

He lectured for a full four hours before finally pausing. Feeling parched, he looked at the students before him and said:

"Sorry for going overboard today. This lecture went way over time. That's all for today's class. If any of you have questions, feel free to discuss them amongst yourselves or send me an email on the academy's internal network. I'll respond when I have time."

"Alright, class dismissed!"

As soon as Feng Qi finished speaking, thunderous applause erupted inside and outside the classroom.

This lecture had upended many students' understanding of the human body's structure and the role of its organs. Even after class ended, they were still eager for more.

Walking out of the classroom, Feng Qi noticed a middle-aged man holding a lesson plan standing by the door. Feng Qi apologized with a faint smile:

"Sorry for taking up your class time."

"No need to apologize. Your lecture was truly remarkable. I was profoundly moved. If you ever need extra class time, feel free to contact me. I'm more than willing to let you use my periods," the man replied earnestly.

After exchanging a few pleasantries and contact information, Feng Qi prepared to head to the cafeteria for a meal.

But just as he was leaving, he noticed a figure crouched in the hallway corner outside the classroom. The person wore a grave expression, intently scribbling in a notebook.

Walking over, Feng Qi's temple throbbed as he recognized the figure:

"Lin Ran!"

Hearing the call, Lin Ran looked up in surprise before scratching his head awkwardly.

"Qi-ge, what a coincidence."

"Coincidence, my foot! Didn't I tell you to leave? Why are you still here?" Feng Qi demanded.

"I was going to leave, but for some reason, there was this strong force pulling me back. My legs just wouldn't move. Maybe it's the magnetic allure of cultivation research!" Lin Ran replied with a straight face.

Feng Qi: …

Listening to Lin Ran spout nonsense with a serious expression, Feng Qi felt helpless.

Lin Ran's future influence would be enormous—not just because he caused hundreds of thousands of people to suffer shattered meridians. His mistakes led to widespread distrust in newly developed cultivation techniques, significantly delaying humanity's progress in cultivation research for decades.

The long-term impact was devastating. For the next century, the development of cultivation techniques stagnated.

Newly created techniques required extensive societal data to support subsequent refinements.

If no one practices a new cultivation technique, it will quickly hit a bottleneck in its progress.

This situation parallels a well-known example from reality: if there hadn't been consistent demand from the gaming market for high-performance chips, even with multiple "Intels," chip technology wouldn't have advanced to its current level.

The ripple effects of such stagnation would extend far beyond the immediate field, even influencing advancements in aerospace technology.

For many technologies, progress isn't something a handful of elite researchers can achieve in isolation. Practical improvements often require societal application to generate meaningful data for refinement.

Cultivation techniques are no different.

Once a new technique is created and tested to ensure safety, it's released to the public. However, there are always aspects requiring further refinement, which rely on a massive pool of data to support updates and improvements.

If people lose trust in new techniques, the field of cultivation will stagnate, and its development will be severely hindered.

This is why Lin Ran is regarded in the future as a "Historical Calamity" rather than just a "troublemaker." The consequences of his actions continued to persist even after his death.

Feng Qi often wondered how Lin Ran's techniques, which passed the rigorous scrutiny of the Tiger Soul Research Institute and showed no issues in his own practice, could lead to such catastrophic results after their release.

Regardless of whether there were hidden factors or if the issue stemmed from Lin Ran himself, one thing was certain: keeping Lin Ran away from cultivating techniques and ensuring he focused solely on magical arts research was the safest course of action.

This way, the root cause of the infamous "Mass Death of Millions" event could be eradicated before it ever occurred.

Looking at Lin Ran, who now wore an expression of pure innocence, Feng Qi felt deeply conflicted. Here was someone blessed with a talent for magical arts research that most people could only dream of, yet he was so single-mindedly obsessed with cultivation techniques. Feng Qi couldn't fathom what was going on inside Lin Ran's head.

Was cultivation really that captivating?

In the future, Feng Qi even left a note about Lin Ran in his private email, reflecting on this exact dilemma.

He wrote that Lin Ran taught him a profound lesson: no amount of advice or persuasion can make someone suddenly see the light. True epiphanies only come from personal experience—through suffering, regret, and pain.

This showed just how deep Lin Ran's obsession with cultivation research ran—so much so that it forced the Feng Qi of the future to contemplate the intricacies of human stubbornness and enlightenment.

"Qi-ge, let's eat first. After that, I'll head back to finish reading those massive bricks—uh, I mean, advanced magical theory books you got me," Lin Ran said with a flattering smile.

Seeing Lin Ran's overly eager expression, Feng Qi could only sigh and nod.

After dinner, Feng Qi returned to his dormitory.

Logging into the academy website on his computer, he was startled to find that someone had secretly recorded his lecture and uploaded it to the Star City Academy forum.

The forum was now abuzz with discussions about the "Cultivation Concept – Planting Deities in the Body" that Feng Qi had introduced.

Students were engaged in heated debates over the concept, and even some academy instructors had joined the conversation, sharing their thoughts and interpretations.

As Feng Qi scrolled through the comments, a notification popped up in the lower-right corner of his screen. A flashing red envelope icon appeared, signaling a new email.

This caught Feng Qi's attention.

Red envelopes indicated correspondence from official institutions, while blue envelopes were used for internal academy communications.

When he clicked on the email and saw the sender's name, he froze.

The email, marked as private and bearing the crimson insignia, was from none other than the Crimson Research Institute.